Observer News: History of Ruskin women spotlighted
History of Ruskin women spotlighted
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Melody_Jameson on 12/04/2012 12:08:00
By MELODY JAMESON
RUSKIN – “We are not thinking as much New Thought as we think we are. It is
all old. People have thought it before. Again. And again. And again.”
These are the words of Harriet E. Orcutt, journalist, novelist, teacher,
campaigner for women’s and worker’s rights, pioneer, organization officer,
land owner, Ruskin’s first librarian – and, clearly, something of a
philosopher.
She never married; her passions were words, truth, books. She cared deeply about
the fledgling community on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay and gave freely of her
many talents.
And she’s one of the many women who contributed through the years to build the
community of today. They’re all being recognized this month, in the spotlight,
at three different venues.
That spotlight began shining first this week at the Tampa Bay History Center in
Channelside, as the three-panel exhibit of artifacts went up, tracing Ruskin’s
very early years forward to the present.
Produced by The Ruskin History Project, Inc., this display on the center’s
second floor tells the Ruskin story through photographs, narratives and rare
objects, from the days pre-historic peoples and strange magnificent animals
roamed its forests to its turn of the century roots as a cooperative organized
on the principles of John Ruskin and centered with the first Ruskin College
through the mid century when farming and agricultural ingenuity flourished, when
The Coffee Cup restaurant drew visitors from great distances to its present
prized for easy living without metropolitan congestion.
The hand-operated meat grinder patented in 1803 that was used regularly in The
Coffee Cup to produce fresh hamburger and the antique Victrola which provided
music for young students to dance by on the third floor of the college
president’s house and the books handled by pioneering forefathers –
they’re all here enticing visitors back a century or more.
The historical exhibit is bookended by two of the community’s groundbreaking
journalists — Orcutt at its recorded beginnings and Aleta “Jonie” Maschek
who has recorded much of its history known today.
Orcutt covered the Chicago World’s Fair, was published in scores of
periodicals and wrote at least three novels before arriving in Ruskin before the
first decade of the 20th century had ended.
By 1911, she had joined Ruskin’s Commongood Society, subsequently would serve
as its secretary and then president, and would be a charter member of the 20th
Century Club from which the Ruskin Woman’s Club would grow.
Maschek began her career in 1949 when female journalists were not particularly
welcome in newsrooms. She worked in early television in Seattle and then in
Chicago and ultimately in New York before making her way to Tampa where she was
a producer for WFLA, the NBC affiliate. She recalls interviewing both Presidents
Carter and Reagan, as well as Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and actor Vincent Price.
She arrived in Ruskin with her husband, Matthew, in the late 1970s and soon
began to chronicle the area’s history through the eyes of settlers’
descendants, first in the pages of The Shopper Observer News and then by
compiling those reports in book form. At last count, she had created nine
volumes opening windows on the past.
Through her years in Ruskin, she has been involved in many community endeavors,
has operated two clothing boutiques, and been crowned Tomato Festival Queen.
Now nearing her 90th birthday, Maschek still writes a fishing column each week
for The Observer News.
The Tampa Bay History Center exhibit will remain in place through the month of
April, according to Mac Miller, an organizer of the Ruskin History Project.
A second venue earmarked for spotlighting Ruskin’s outstanding women will be
the local library on Sunday (April 15). From 1 to 4 p.m. that day, the Tampa
-Hillsborough County Public Library System will be staging one of its “road
shows” commemorating the facility, its keepers and its founders as it looks
ahead to a milestone. Come 2014, the library network will celebrate its
centennial, with the Ruskin Branch Library in the vanguard as one of the oldest
in the system, according to Jennifer Dietz, a senior librarian managing the
system’s historical observances.
In preparation, specialists will be on hand Sunday afternoon to video or audio
tape all library-related recollections of local residents, Dietz said. “If
someone remembers a story hour as a child or discovered a book at the library
that impacted a life or met someone special at the library, we’d like to hear
the story,” she added.
County library personnel also will be scanning any documents related to the
library’s history which local citizens may have in their possession for saving
in its archives, the librarian noted. The scanning process does not harm the
documents which are returned immediately to owners.
In addition, a selection of about 20 Burgert Brothers photographs will be on
display in the library during the afternoon. Burgert photos, taken by the Tampa
professional photographers around the city and its environs through the early
20th century have graced calendars, exhibits and edifices across the region.
And portions of the Ruskin Woman’s Club exhibit which was hung in the Tampa
Bay History Center last month are to be displayed at the library on Sunday, The
RWC panels presented at TBHC in March also traced the club’s 100 year history
with photos, narratives and artifacts.
The current Ruskin library building, dedicated in 1966, is a direct outgrowth of
the first library cobbled together in Ruskin by Orcutt a century ago.
Light refreshments will be available, courtesy of Friends of the Library.
A third commemoration of Ruskin’s women and their achievements is slated for
Saturday, April 21, inside and around the historic structure that now is the RWC
clubhouse as the organization celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The three-story home with architectural touches reminiscent of a Swiss Chalet
and located on the west side of U.S. 41 just south of the Ruskin Inlet is the
only original building that survived the 1918 fire that destroyed the first
Ruskin College campus. It was the home of Dr. George McA. Miller and his wife,
Adaline Dickman Miller, as they worked to build the commongood society
membership and college student body.
At the same time, the genesis of the contemporary woman’s group – the 20th
Century Club – was developing, becoming a backbone of the community through
the first world war and the subsequent depression. In 1940, Mrs. Miller’s
family deeded the home to the Ruskin Woman’s Club that had evolved from the
former organization.
From its initial formation by Orcutt, through the years, Ruskin women sheltered
and guided and grew their local library. Books were housed variously in the home
of Aurora Edwards, an early pioneer, in the Miller house and in a little chamber
of commerce office, before the first permanent library was established in the
mid-1920s.
And, on April 21, members of the RWC, many in period dress, will celebrate it
all during a public reception between 10 AM and 4 PM. Portions of the elaborate
RWC centennial exhibit designed and coordinated by Dr. Tina Trent leading a team
of five members will be displayed inside their clubhouse. And activities for
children as well as their parents are being planned on the grounds, according to
Betty Jo Council, an RWC officer. Light refreshments also are planned.
Orcutt well might be astounded if she could see the results of her labors today.
It might even trigger her wry sense of humor which was unleashed at one point as
she lamented the loss of a barrel full of books in the inlet. Surely, it was for
the instruction of the fish, she suggested, adding meaningfully “ that is why
they are so hard to catch!”
Copyright 2012 Melody Jameson